low calorie meals for kids

School kids need healthy and nutritious packed lunches to meet day-to-day challenges. Diabetic kids love variety and special treats in their lunchboxes just like their other friends.

Parents of a child with juvenile diabetes always face the challenge because their kid doesn’t like their lunch box in school.

In this article, you will learn how to plan food and meal for a diabetic child.
Do Diabetic Children Need Special Foods?

Diabetic children need to eat the same nutritious food that other family members should be eating because there is no diabetes diet.

Parents need to know 3 things related to diet with juvenile diabetes

1. Kids won’t be on a “diet”
2. Children can eat all food including foods containing sugar
3. Special diabetic foods are not necessary for kids.

What Mother of a diabetic child need to watch:

• Meals and snacks should be taken about the same time every day.
• Meals and snacks should be about the same size every day unless there is a change in daily routine.
• The balance of what they eat at each meal in other words total calorie of food should not exceed the prescribed value.

How to planning meals for a diabetic child

Many nutrition experts recommend a plan called “carbohydrate counting” and you need to you need to work closely with a dietitian to plan meals and snacks for your child, as every child’s requirements are different.

Carbohydrate counting means keeping track of sugars and starchy foods, which have the most effect on blood sugar. You need to match up the amount of carbohydrate to the amount of insulin your child takes.

With some practice, it will become second nature for you and your child to:

• Diabetes diet of a child should be balanced with insulin levels.
• Meal should have enough calories for normal growth of your child.
• Make meals satisfying to your kid, so the child won’t feel deprived.
What is the balanced diet?
Food of a diabetic child should follow diabetes food pyramid. This food pyramid governs what should go into the day’s meals and snacks.
• The child should eat plenty of vegetables and fruit.
• Protein should come from lean meats, chicken, turkey, fish, beans, eggs, or low-fat cheese.
• You can add sugars but only in small amounts.

Author of this article, is working with several diabetes prevention center. Sometimes, it’s difficult to identify diabetes, here is an article which explains what are the11 diabetes symptoms for your easy reference. You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter on http://www.diabetes-types.com/index.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arindam_Chattopadhyaya

low calorie meals for kids